The Flaming Lips

Fight Test




Race For The Prize

Everyone has heard the saying...

"Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime".

Everyone has also heard of Grameen Bank by now, since its founder won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Well, imagine if everyone could do what Muhammad Yunus did, lent money to entrepreneurs in developing countries to start or expand a business. Kiva lets you do exactly that. I find the idea intriguing, and will give it a go.

Happy Relevant Patriotic Holiday to All

"How does one hate a country, or love one? I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is the love of one's country; is it the hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That's a good thing, but one mustn't make a virtue of it, or a profession...Insofar as I love life, I love the hills...but that sort of love does not have a boundary-line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope." ~ Ursula K Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

Reading Firefly's shout-out to her sisters reminded me of what happened at the drugstore today. I popped in after work to grab my favorite new snack (Scooby Doo rainbow sherbet push-up pops) and I was leaving when this man went through the door at the same instant I did. The anti-theft alarm thingy went off, and before I had a chance to even wonder if I'd forgotten to pay (again), the guy tossed "Enjoy" over his shoulder, ran to his bicycle and pedaled off! That's when I noticed the giant bag of drugstore goodies he was holding. I was so miffed I yelled, "In my country you'd have your hand chopped off!" He laughed, the onlookers behind me laughed, and I couldn't help chuckling--after I walked back into the store and then out again to show that I wasn't the culprit.

So you see, a vigilante is handy sometimes. Imagine if Firefly's big sister was standing in line in that store, instead of sheepish middle-aged middle class white folk who left their SUV's idling and didn't want to get involved. That man would've been brought to justice in the form of a flying tackle.

Modest Mouse - Missed The Boat

My favorite tune on their new album. This is a video made by a fan, I think it fits exactly.

It's a circus in there

You know when you've been in a fight with someone? Well, after the fight, does it sometimes seem like you reserved most of the arguments for yourself? Your own head can get so crowded with a thousand different voices. Every two minutes one voice jumps up, declares something and then urges you to act on it before it's too late. Just as you reach for the phone another voice sidles over and explains how the previous voice is now wearing a straitjacket and locked in a padded cell, and how no one in their right minds would do what you were about to do. Instead--uh uh, says voice #3, don't listen to that silly twit, when's the last time you got sound advice from it? Voice #4 muses out loud that it saw voice #3 on America's Most Wanted the other night, something about conning old people out of their pensions... obviously nothing good is going to come out of listening to those who harm the elderly. Wouldn't it be a better idea to just--oh please, drawls #5, that would be a good idea if humiliating failure was the goal. Just listen to me...

Really, I wish I could use all that vicious incisiveness on others instead of reserving it for my poor overcrowded brain.

Audioslave - Be Yourself

Facaaga ha ka harin.

That's what my aunt said to me. Apparently, it's time I settled down and started a family. To be honest I've been feeling a little left out lately, everyone I know and their younger siblings seem to have been bitten by the marriage (or at least cohabitation) bug. The few still standing are just waiting for Cupid to let loose his fatal arrow (how's that for purple prose?).

On the other hand, I feel like everyone is heading into dangerous territory without any preparation. On the other other hand, perhaps I'm just a worrywart and have prepared myself so thoroughly that I keep finding reasons to postpone the trip.

Anyhow, this isn't the first time an aunt has sagely advised me that I'll be a cajuuso any day now. It just hit a little closer to home because I've recently witnessed the very painful and destructive end of a 20-year marriage. I don't want to go through that. The best way to avoid it is to never get married, isn't it? So why do I want to get married? It just doesn't compute.

Tax Hell

I'm sure nearly everyone in the States is breathing a sigh of relief that April 17 is behind them. Why does the government make us do this every single damn year? Big Brother probably knows more about our finances than we do. Why doesn't the IRS stop pretend it needs us to send in all this paperwork? Just automatically withdraw the measly $3 I owe the state, and deposit the $14 the federal government owes me! Then I can buy my next two grande lattes at Starbucks knowing I'm only spending my tax refund money...

Oh, I forgot.

The reason I wanted to update in the first place: I saw K'Naan at the House of Blues in Cleveland, Ohio on March 30. He was opening for Stephen Marley and his brother Jr. Gong. The Marleys were alright.

K'NAAN, if you happen to be one of the three people reading this, you should know that I think you were awesome. I didn't think you were awesome before. I thought that your voice was grating, and your lyrics completely lacking in irony. But you sound way better live, and sometimes unironic, unselfconscious singing from the heart is moving. I nearly cried during "Blues 4 the Horn", (which has a theme similar to The Arcade Fire's "Haiti") and happily bopped my head with the audience of largely doped-out kids for every beat in "Smile". I'm sure "Soobax" will grow on me, since I bought the album and it's on heavy rotation at home, in my office and at the lab.

Thank you!

And thank you to the Somali cabdriver who wouldn't take my fare after the show. That was really sweet.

Ahem

It's not like I didn't know that this thing wouldn't get updated much. But still, four months? Holy cow. My sole excuse is that nothing much is happening in my life. Really. Aside from the occasional life-altering decision or three, I've had a blessedly mundane winter.

Speaking of life-altering decisions and cows (how is that for a segue?), I've been seriously considering becoming a vegetarian. I do experiments with mice, and we (that's to say, I) often have to kill them. It's the worse part of doing research, and I feel so guilty about taking innocent lives. So I came up with the brilliant idea of restoring some kind of karmic balance by not eating meat. Everyone I've told this to has at first acted surprised to discover I actually eat meat, and then predicted grimly that I will starve to death. I told my supervisor last week, and ever since he's been hounding me, telling me it's a terrible idea, that I will completely blow my future by being too weak to study or conduct proper scientific research. He's not heartless; really, he's a sweet, caring person. It's just that his priorities tend to be somewhat skewed occasionally.

Anywho, are there any vegetarians in the house? How difficult can it be to prepare a balanced meal without killing poor defenceless animals?

Weird Things About Me

Firefly's tag

Rule:

• "Each player of this game starts with the “6 weird things about you”. People who get tagged need to write a blog post of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names."

I'm so normal it's sad. I'm really racking my brain here to think of something weird. I'm just boring.

1. I like food, but rarely feel motivated to eat. I mean hunger is not physically unpleasant for me, and often I don't notice that I haven't eaten all day until I move suddenly and feel a rush of dizziness. I've started working out to kick-start my appetite, but all it does is make me feel thirsty, so I drink lots of water and feel even less hungry. According to some, I need a keeper.

2. I'm happy alone. Not happiest, just content. I will go for a couple of days without talking to anyone or taking calls. It used to freak friends and family out, but I've trained them to get used to it. During my alone time I'm not doing any soul-searching or anything, I'm just recuperating from the little socializing I do the rest of the time.

3. I have these moments of complete shock at my existence, and a niggling suspicion that everything (me, the world, other people) is a dream in someone else's head. I can bring them on, but most often they take me by surprise. The first time I had this feeling I was about 9, and running away from home (which consisted of running away to my aunt's at the other end of town). I was on the bus, and this lady came on the bus with four little kids; they were crying and screaming and the lady was so overwhelmed I decided to entertain the little brats. Soon they were laughing and sitting still and the lady was so grateful. My stop approached and I decided to stay on the bus because one of the little ones was sleeping in my lap. That's when I had this surreal feeling that I wasn't real. It was freaky, to say the least. Since then it comes on maybe once or twice a year. I just sit still for a bit until I've convinced myself that it doesn't matter anyway.

4. That's it, that's all I can think of, except...

5. I don't know 6 people to tag!

To Autumn

Another poem written by John Keats, one of my favorite Romantic poets. The third stanza is just incredibly beautiful, from the rhetorical question to the pensive answer.

1.
SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

2.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

3.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Communication and Commitment

Are the two most dangerous words in the English language. They mean nothing and everything.

It's all fungi to me

I love taking pictures of insects and flowers and stuff that I can zoom in on :) Mushrooms I like because of the textures, and because the scale can be mind-bending.

A Day at the Beach

A fisher man threw this fish away, and kids ran over to watch it flop about. Apparently, it's got botulism, so the fisherman wouldn't let me toss back in the water. Kinda sad.

Bus Stop Companions

Mike and The Mechanics - "The Living Years"

I heard this song on the radio today and loved the lyrics.

I posted the music video from Youtube but it's been pulled. I found a live version which I actually like more. Hope it sticks around.

How You Live Your Life

You are honest and direct. You tell it like it is. You tend to avoid confrontation and stay away from sticky situations. Your friends tend to be a as quirky as you are - which is saying a lot! You tend to dream big, but you worry that your dreams aren't attainable.

How Do You Live Your Life?

Slow and Steady

Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy. They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder. It'd really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment. They expect you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then usually decide against it.

How Do People See You?

It's the little details that kill me, like the garter belt with the folded bills.